Revealed: the PG&E hook that started the Camp Fire

A photo provided by PG&E shows the broken C-hook that is believed to have failed at the transmission tower that has been identified as the origin of the deadly 2018 Camp Fire.

Photo: Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has released a photograph of the broken hook on its Butte County power tower involved in the ignition of the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history last year.

PG&E provided the image Thursday at the request of a federal judge who saw it was redacted in a recent regulatory report about the 2018 Camp Fire. But lawyers for other groups had already given a similar image to a different federal judge more than one week earlier.

The photo PG&E sent to U.S. District Judge William Alsup shows a white-gloved hand gripping the base of a mostly rust-colored metal object that is attached to a hook cut off just after its “C” shape begins to turn upward. In the background is yellow material on which “PG&E” is written.

Attorneys for insurance companies and wildfire victims included a photo of essentially the same thing from a wider viewpoint in a Nov. 27 letter to U.S. District Judge James Donato, who is overseeing a proceeding related to PG&E’s bankruptcy case. The attorneys said it depicted “the broken C-hook that started the Camp Fire.”

The letter to Donato also included a second photograph that purports to show a different worn hook, apparently from another one of PG&E’s transmission towers.

A photo in a letter sent to Judge James Donato by attorneys representing insurance companies and wildfire victims purports to show a C-hook, which is part of a PG&E transmission tower. "The photograph on the left, taken from a similar PG&E tower as one where the Camp Fire ignited, shows what happens when a metal C-hook rubs against the steel plate it has sat in for decades," they wrote.

Photo: United States District Court, Northern District of California

Both images show equipment that “PG&E allowed to disintegrate until eventually disaster struck,” the letter to Donato said.

The photos are significant for a few reasons.

First, state investigators announced in May that PG&E high-voltage power lines started the Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed more than 18,800 buildings in November 2018. But Cal Fire has not released its report on the underlying causes of the historic disaster because Butte County prosecutors are still conducting a criminal investigation.

Also, the California Public Utilities Commission recently released a report from the safety and enforcement staff about its investigation into the Camp Fire. The report concluded that PG&E did not properly inspect and maintain the Butte County transmission line in question. Had PG&E crews climbed the old lattice steel tower where the blaze started, they might have found a worn C-hook, the “timely replacement” of which “could have prevented ignition of the Camp Fire,” the report said.

But the commission’s report redacted photographs of the broken hook on the tower, as well as an image of a different hook with “significant wear” at another point on the Caribou-Palermo transmission line.

After the report’s release, Alsup, who is overseeing PG&E’s probation arising from the 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline blast, directed the company to file public copies of the photos or explain why it could not do so by Thursday.

2of2A photo published in a lawsuit shows the tower where the Camp Fire began.Photo: Corey, Luzaich, De Ghetaldi & Riddle LLP

In its response to the judge, PG&E said it had “no objection to providing both photographs ... in an unredacted format.” Cal Fire agreed that the photo of the broken hook where the Camp Fire started — an image that originated with PG&E — could be released.

But the Butte County district attorney objected to a public filing of the second image, which PG&E does not believe was its to begin with, the company said. PG&E told Alsup it is “endeavoring to determine” whether it has an unredacted version of the second image and could provide it to him.

Also on Thursday, Alsup told PG&E to answer six questions regarding the Camp Fire and the utilities commission report. He asked about the configuration of the C-hook on the tower at the origin point, how closely any drone inspected the hook prior the disaster, and about PG&E’s record-keeping before the fire, among other queries. PG&E must respond by Dec. 19.

Terrie Prosper, a spokeswoman for the utilities commission, told The Chronicle in an email that Cal Fire officials required the redactions in her agency’s investigation report “because they considered the pictures confidential.”

Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean said he was not aware of an image of the broken hook on the tower where the Camp Fire started being released before, but declined to comment otherwise.

“Due to the ongoing legal aspect of the situation, nothing can be said at this time,” McLean said.

Donato is in charge of estimating PG&E’s liabilities for the 2017 and 2018 wildfires — a crucial step to the company’s path out of bankruptcy protection. The letter he received with the C-hook photos, dated Nov. 27, involved a dispute about production of evidence.

On the top of the letter was the name of the law firm representing insurance companies involved in the PG&E bankruptcy. It was also signed by an attorney representing a committee of individual wildfire victims.

Attorneys said they included the second photo because it “shows what happens when a metal C-hook rubs against the steel plate it has sat in for decades.”

“The original C-hook shape is eroded, leaving a gouge where the C-hook and steel plate made contact,” the letter said. Attorneys said they “believe the evidence will show a similar slow erosion resulted in the Camp Fire C-hook snapping in half.”

J.D. Morris is a business reporter covering PG&E and local efforts to develop coronavirus treatments or vaccines.

Before joining The Chronicle, he was the Sonoma County government reporter for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, where he was among the journalists awarded a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the 2017 North Bay wildfires.

He was previously the casino industry reporter for the Las Vegas Sun. Raised in Monterey County and Bakersfield, he has a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric from UC Berkeley.